Recipe: Grapefruit Lemon Bars with Salted Shortbread Crust

Grapefruit juice, while great for drinking straight, isn’t as strong as lemon juice, so you cannot substitute it one-for-one in a lemon-bar recipe. However, if you simmer twice as much grapefruit (or blood orange or Cara Cara orange) until it has reduced by half, you can incorporate that into your favorite bar recipe.

You could make this with all grapefruit juice or half reduced grapefruit juice and half lemon. You also could use all lemon zest for this recipe or a mixture of both.

2. To make the crust, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt in a small bowl. In a food processor, pulse together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth. (If you don’t have a food processor, you could use an electric hand-held mixer.)

3. Add the dry ingredients to the food processor bowl, and pulse to combine, just until mixture is crumbly and holds together when pinched.

4. Tear two sheets of parchment paper and lay them perpendicular in an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking dish. (This not only prevents the bar from sticking to the pan but it also makes it easier to remove the bars once they have cooled.)

5. Using dry fingers, press the crust mixture into the bottom of the parchment-lined dish and about half an inch up the sides of the dish.

6. Bake crust for about 25 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven, but leave oven on.

7. While crust is baking, make the filling by whisking together the flour and sugar in a small bowl.

8. In a large bowl, whisk together the citrus juice, eggs, salt and zest.

9. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, whisking until sugar has dissolved. Let the mixture rest for at least 10 minutes to let some of the air bubbles rise to the surface.

10. Pour filling into the warm crust and then place back in the oven. Bake for another 25 to 25 minutes, until center of filling has set.

11.Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

12. Refrigerate for at least one hour before removing from pan and cutting into squares. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired, and serve.

From Addie Broyles, Cox Newspapers. Salted shortbread crust recipe is based on one in the January issue of Bon Appétit.